Myrddin Landscape Plugin SDK

[Beauty]

Here is as summary of plugin features:
[...]
· editing features : heightmap, color map, light map and splatting map painting, external heightmap import and mosaic generator

I updated the feature list on the MLP wiki page.
And I recognized, that the feature list contains external heightmap import.
Either it's not implemented or not documentated or I was to stupid to find it in the manual ...

[Beauty]

Today I looked to the MLP again and for the XML files (for terrain details) I found the tag

Code: Select all

<MaterialDefault BaseTexture="..." DetailTexture="..." BaseUProj="..." BaseVProj="..." DetailUProj="..." DetailVProj="..." ... />

Maybe by this tag a "common" texture can be loaded (1 picture stretched to the whole terrain), when I apply the right UV params?

Bug report:
5 different terrainxxx.xml files contains a reference to the BaseTexture file splatting_default.png, but nowhere in the MLP downloads is this file.
Either Myrddin forgot to include it, or instead the png file, the splatting_default.dds file should be used. In the second case the xml files should be updated.
This is a task for a further release ... I hope this isn't a dead project (because of the rare time of Myrddin and the upcoming new Terrain Scene Manager by Sinbad).
What do you think about the future of this project?
Is there an interest to update it to Ogre 1.7?

Interesting would be a comparism between MLP and the new official Terrain Scene Manager.
E.g. Common features, advantages/missing features of each one.
Paging in the new TSM is currently slow (as I read). Maybe the MLP is faster for paging?


And I have an other question.
Interaction between the application and MLP is done by Get/Get commands. For example this:

Code: Select all

sceneMgr.SetOption("ATMLightSunMoonTheta", value.ValueDegrees)

For me this is looking a little bit circumstantial. Better would be object orientated interaction.
Advantages:
* Immediately you see the right value type (e.g. String or Vector3)
* By intellisense (autocomplete) you quickly see which "commands" are available
* The many methods/properties could be added to a hierarchical structure for a better overview
(e.g. add "commands" like LightingBloomFactor to the subsection Lightning and call it by Smgr.Lightning.BloomFactor)
* A quickhelp would be available when typing/hovering a method/property (e.g. in case of C# by usage of XML comments)
* The user doesn't need to look to the manual for each detail
* The chance of mistyping is reduced (for params or value types)

So why Myrddin used the Get/Set way for interaction?
(e.g. Ogre restrictions)
Isn't it possible to integrate the scene manager by a smarter way?

[Beauty]

In an other thread somebody wrote that maybe shader 3.0 support is needed by the graphic card to run MLP.
But in the manual I didn't find a requirements section.
What are the system requirements?
Will there be a problem on cheap or some years old graphic cards?

[Beauty]

I currently want to implement a "select circle" for objects using Myrddin.
When picking objects standing on the terrain, there should be a circle on the ground.
First I wantet to implement "Projective Decals" like in the Ogre Intermediate Tutorial (see http://www.ogre3d.org/tikiwiki/Projective+Decals ). But Myrddin does not support for example "mSceneManager->getOption ("getMaterialPageName", myOptionPtr);" (correct me if I am wrong?)

In the manual I found this:
SplattingExtMaterials ... use by GetSplattingExtMaterials and SetSplattingExtMaterials
Description: list of splatting extended materials (separated by whitespace)

Also you can look to the manual subsection Splatting Editing. There are Get/Set params like this:
SplattingLayerMaterialIndex
PaintLayerMaterialBlendAdd

Maybe also you could add a texture layer with your marker picture, move it by UV values and disable the tile effect (if possible).

Just as some spontaneous ideas.
But right, projective decals would be nice. (I just did read details about this Ogre feature.)


update:
I also found the forum page ETM Projective Decal with code snippets.
Maybe it's possible to use this for MLP.
If not - the source code of MLP public. So you have the chance to add support for projective decals. And you can look to ETM how it was been included there.

[nico008]

Today I looked deep into the downloads (sources, etc.) for about 3 hours. (... and 1 more to write this post)
It's very complex (for me) and I couldn't compile it, although I read the installation instructions. (They are a little bit unclear for me.)

Same for me (a couple of days)
If someone can compile the pluggin for latest Mogre please let me know !!!!

[nico008]

Myrddin, could you please help us getting your nice pluggin work with latest Mogre version?
Thanks in advance!!

[myrddinson]

Hi,

as i have no time now to work on MLP, i intend to release soon a fully opensource version (including shaders) & Ogre 1.7 compatible; for latest Mogre compatibility, i will work on it later if i can spare time on it...

[nico008]

Ogre 1.7 compatible would be already VERY great
I'm looking forward to it!!!

You do really nice work

See you

[Beauty]

as i have no time now to work on MLP, i intend to release soon a fully opensource version

This would be a great decision of you, because I'm always sad when useful software dies, because the owner delete the website with all it's content.
Also that you want to update your project to the corrent Ogre version is a gentle way of saying good bye.
Because you know your software best. As I saw on other projects, it's much more difficult to others to update them and it also happened that the tries faild.

So I'm waiting that you make us happy

By the way:
Enjoy the last days of this year.

[nevarim]

myrdinn use paging option for heightmaps?

[Xplodwild]

I tried porting MLP to trunk. It does compile, however the Demo app just closes when loading a terrain. Commenting the "setWorldGeometry" line does fix it, but then, the render is black
Any idea ?

[nevarim]

what version of ogre you have?

[Xplodwild]

trunk (Ogre1.8.0-unstable)
Edit: Also, did someone manage to make it work properly on Ogre 1.7 ?

[DanielSefton]

I tried porting MLP to trunk. It does compile, however the Demo app just closes when loading a terrain. Commenting the "setWorldGeometry" line does fix it, but then, the render is black
Any idea ?

http://www.ogre3d.org/forums/viewtopic. ... 54#p366654
I already wrote a "patch" and it works (btw, it was manually cobbled together so you can't use patch software).

[nevarim]

sorry but there is a method to apply your patch in visual studio for win? (for now i am copying patch by hand )

[DanielSefton]

sorry but there is a method to apply your patch in visual studio for win? (for now i am copying patch by hand )

Nope, I don't know why I didn't produce a standard diff. But it has already saved you time...

[Xplodwild]

Many thanks, I've gone through all the pages of the topic except this one I think

Handprocessing the diff... If someone needs it, I'll upload back the processed src files (it's going to take some hours though).

[nevarim]

if you can

thanks

Nevarim

[Xplodwild]

Here it is :
http://ompldr.org/vNnBtag

I get a strange issue however, it says that "gpu must support at least vs_3_0 and ps_3_0 shaders". After checking the logs, it says that my graphics card doesn't support a damn thing :

Code: Select all

17:05:02: RenderSystem capabilities
17:05:02: -------------------------
17:05:02: RenderSystem Name: Direct3D9 Rendering Subsystem
17:05:02: GPU Vendor: nvidia
17:05:02: Device Name: Monitor-1-NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285
17:05:02: Driver Version: 6.14.12.6099
17:05:02:  * Fixed function pipeline: no
17:05:02:  * Hardware generation of mipmaps: no
17:05:02:  * Texture blending: yes
17:05:02:  * Anisotropic texture filtering: no
17:05:02:  * Dot product texture operation: no
17:05:02:  * Cube mapping: no
17:05:02:  * Hardware stencil buffer: yes
17:05:02:    - Stencil depth: 8
17:05:02:    - Two sided stencil support: no
17:05:02:    - Wrap stencil values: no
17:05:02:  * Hardware vertex / index buffers: yes
17:05:02:  * Vertex programs: no
17:05:02:  * Number of floating-point constants for vertex programs: 0
17:05:02:  * Number of integer constants for vertex programs: 0
17:05:02:  * Number of boolean constants for vertex programs: 0
17:05:02:  * Fragment programs: no
17:05:02:  * Number of floating-point constants for fragment programs: 0
17:05:02:  * Number of integer constants for fragment programs: 0
17:05:02:  * Number of boolean constants for fragment programs: 0
17:05:02:  * Geometry programs: no
17:05:02:  * Number of floating-point constants for geometry programs: 0
17:05:02:  * Number of integer constants for geometry programs: 0
17:05:02:  * Number of boolean constants for geometry programs: 0
17:05:02:  * Supported Shader Profiles: hlsl
17:05:02:  * Texture Compression: yes
17:05:02:    - DXT: yes
17:05:02:    - VTC: no
17:05:02:    - PVRTC: no
17:05:02:  * Scissor Rectangle: no
17:05:02:  * Hardware Occlusion Query: yes
17:05:02:  * User clip planes: no
17:05:02:  * VET_UBYTE4 vertex element type: no
17:05:02:  * Infinite far plane projection: no
17:05:02:  * Hardware render-to-texture: yes
17:05:02:  * Floating point textures: yes
17:05:02:  * Non-power-of-two textures: yes
17:05:02:  * Volume textures: no
17:05:02:  * Multiple Render Targets: 0
17:05:02:    - With different bit depths: no
17:05:02:  * Point Sprites: no
17:05:02:  * Extended point parameters: no
17:05:02:  * Vertex texture fetch: no
17:05:02:  * Number of world matrices: 0
17:05:02:  * Number of texture units: 0
17:05:02:  * Stencil buffer depth: 8
17:05:02:  * Number of vertex blend matrices: 0
17:05:02:  * Render to Vertex Buffer : no
17:05:02:  * DirectX per stage constants: no
17:05:02: ***************************************
17:05:02: *** D3D9 : Subsystem Initialised OK ***
17:05:02: ***************************************

Never happened before, and Ogre samples works fine.
Edit: Ooops, my bad, issue on my side.

[nevarim]

thanks i'll try it

[nico008]

Xplodwild, thanks for updated files.
But after some hours, I still can't get it work

1.6.x version does compile, but not 1.7.2

What I have downloaded :
-OGRE 1.7.2 SDK for Visual C++ .Net 2010 (32-bit) from http://www.ogre3d.org/
-Microsoft Visual C++ Dependencies Package from http://www.ogre3d.org/
-MLPSDK093Sources.rar from http://sourceforge.net/projects/myrddin ... gin/v0.93/
-Your zip file from http://ompldr.org/vNnBtag

I use VC2010 with ReleaseSDK mode.
QuickGUI : error C3859: (sort of out of virtual memory - internal memory heap limit reached)
Plugin_ZPK : error C2259: 'Ogre::ZPKArchive' : unable to instanciate abrastract class

Any solution is welcome

[Xplodwild]

Just add "bool readOnly = true" to the ZPKArchive::open(Ogre::String) function prototype. Adjust cpp accordingly.

As for QuickGUI, change compiler options and add /Zm181

[nico008]

Thanks!
I also had to make 1 or 2 changes but now it compile for Ogre version
Now I would love being able to compile it for Mogre 1.7.1 beta, don't know if it will be easy or not...
Anyone knows?
I go to bed now anyway...

EDIT:
(I didn't go to bed actually...)
Here is 1 of the 4 errors I get when I compile for Mogre SDK 1.7.1 beta :

Error 1 error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "__declspec(dllimport) public: virtual class Ogre::MapIterator<class std::tr1::unordered_map<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> >,class Ogre::Node *,class std::hash<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> > >,struct std::equal_to<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> > >,class std::allocator<struct std::pair<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> > const ,class Ogre::Node *> > > > __thiscall Ogre::Node::getChildIterator(void)" (__imp_?getChildIterator@Node@Ogre@@UAE?AV?$MapIterator@V?$unordered_map@V?$basic_string@DU?$char_traits@D@std@@V?$allocator@D@2@@std@@PAVNode@Ogre@@V?$hash@V?$basic_string@DU?$char_traits@D@std@@V?$allocator@D@2@@std@@@2@U?$equal_to@V?$basic_string@DU?$char_traits@D@std@@V?$allocator@D@2@@std@@@2@V?$allocator@U?$pair@$$CBV?$basic_string@DU?$char_traits@D@std@@V?$allocator@D@2@@std@@PAVNode@Ogre@@@std@@@2@@tr1@std@@@2@XZ) C:\MogreSDK\Plugins\LandscapeSceneManager\scripts\OgreOctree.obj Plugin_LandscapeSceneManager

I can't understand this error
Any help is welcome!!!



See you

[nevarim]

have you successfolly compile myrdinn for ogre 1.7.2? with demo?

[Xplodwild]

I don't know a damn thing about Mogre so I can't really help you on this side.

As for nevarim, I successfully compiled the plugin with Ogre 1.8 (trunk), as well as the demo. It ran without any problem.

And I have an other question.
Interaction between the application and MLP is done by Get/Get commands. For example this:

Code: Select all

sceneMgr.SetOption("ATMLightSunMoonTheta", value.ValueDegrees)

For me this is looking a little bit circumstantial. Better would be object orientated interaction.
Advantages:
* Immediately you see the right value type (e.g. String or Vector3)
* By intellisense (autocomplete) you quickly see which "commands" are available
* The many methods/properties could be added to a hierarchical structure for a better overview
(e.g. add "commands" like LightingBloomFactor to the subsection Lightning and call it by Smgr.Lightning.BloomFactor)
* A quickhelp would be available when typing/hovering a method/property (e.g. in case of C# by usage of XML comments)
* The user doesn't need to look to the manual for each detail
* The chance of mistyping is reduced (for params or value types)

So why Myrddin used the Get/Set way for interaction?
(e.g. Ogre restrictions)
Isn't it possible to integrate the scene manager by a smarter way?

I was thinking about the same thing. It's way better to be able to have something you can rely on (like the Ogre::Terrain class and everything around it), instead of having just setOption("Smooth", ...), and no real access to every terrain page and everything. I won't be using it because of this :/ . I hope sinbad (or others) will port some of the cool features to Ogre::Terrain (like the streamed paging, or the sky system (I love the light going down when a cloud passes in front of the sun :p), or even the ability to have 8 splatted textures), but I'll stick with it for now.